O's game blog: Gausman faces Boston at Camden Yards

After last night's 5-2 loss to Boston, the Orioles host the Red Sox tonight in the second of a four-game series at Camden Yards. The American League East leading Red Sox are 86-64 while the Orioles are 82-68.

The Orioles are tied with Toronto for second place, both four games behind Boston and both co-leaders for the two AL wild card spots. In that race, Detroit is 2 1/2 games back of the O's and Blue Jays with Houston and Seattle three out and New York 4 1/2 games back.

Tonight's pitching matchup features two former Oriole top pitching prospects with right-hander Kevin Gausman (8-10, 3.43 ERA) pitching against Boston left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (2-7, 4.98 ERA).

How they were ranked:

End of 2012: Gausman the O's No. 2 prospect and nationally No. 26 by Baseball America while Rodriguez was the O's No. 5 prospect.

End of 2013: Gausman was the Orioles' No. 2 prospect and nationally No. 20 by Baseball America while Rodriguez was the O's No. 3 and nationally No. 65.

Gausman threw eight scoreless innings allowing four hits in a win over Boston and Rick Porcello last Wednesday at Fenway Park. He threw a career-high 120 pitches and won 1-0 on Mark Trumbo's second-inning home run.

I asked Orioles catcher Matt Wieters about the challenge Gausman faces tonight. He just pitched very well against Boston last week and now he faces them again in his very next start.

"You really have to take it as two different outings and the game will present its own situations," Wieters said. "That is what he has to do tonight. He'll have to pitch tonight's game and good or bad in the last start, you can't worry about it. This is a professional lineup over there and they will present different situations to him and he has to respond to them."

Over his past five starts, Gausman has thrown four scoreless outings and is 4-0 with an ERA of 0.82. In that span he has allowed three runs over 33 innings. He has allowed two runs or fewer in seven of his past nine starts. In 11 home starts, Gausman is 6-1 with a 2.27 ERA and .223 batting average against. He has 17 quality starts and the Orioles have a 13-14 record in his 27 starts in 2016.

Rodriguez had a rough last outing, going just 2 1/3 innings Thursday versus the Yankees, allowing eight hits in in 14 at-bats and four runs. Over his past four starts, he is 0-2 with an ERA of 4.57. In nine road starts, he is 2-3 with a 4.04 ERA and in 11 second-half starts, he is 1-4 with a 3.25 ERA and .220 average against.

The Orioles lead the majors with 237 home runs. Trumbo owns the major league lead with 43 homers. Chris Davis is tied for fifth in the majors with 38 and Manny Machado ranks eighth in the AL with 36 home runs.

According to Inside Edge, Orioles hitters have come to the plate with runners in scoring position this season just 21.4% (1,202 times in 5,607 plate appearances) of the time, fewest in the majors. The league average is 24.9%. Despite the fewest opportunities, the Orioles rank sixth in the AL with a .266 batting average with runners in scoring position